- Thread starter Tman
- Start date
I've tried Arc, Mig and Tig, and at present Mig is where I'm most comfortable. I struggled like hell with Arc, but picked up mig fairly quickly. Tig was OK, and I can see having a play with it in a few years, but want to concentrate on Mig for now 
chevy2
Member
- Messages
- 1,631
- Location
- Herts.
I use all methods which all have their place,
A lot of my stuff is hotrod/racecar stuff so thats virtually 100% tig,
On railing/gate fabrication type work you cant beat mig for speed,
Out on site i mostly do arc as it works in all weathers and conditions and quicker to setup,
Rarely do gas welding, usually if its a small job in a park where theres no power available.
A lot of my stuff is hotrod/racecar stuff so thats virtually 100% tig,
On railing/gate fabrication type work you cant beat mig for speed,
Out on site i mostly do arc as it works in all weathers and conditions and quicker to setup,
Rarely do gas welding, usually if its a small job in a park where theres no power available.
I had to learn arc welding to maintain a log flume - I like it as it's cheap, simple and I have confidence in the welds I produce.
Never liked mig despite having two good machines - never liked the welds produced by other fellow operators - too many welds lacking penetration.
Cut a lot with gas but never welded with it.
Tig - heaven - perfect for what we do - small delicate repairs/fab - we have a small DC inverter which cost nothing and has no fancy functions but as we don't do pressure/hygene it's all we need to stick stuff together - we all love tig as it's slow and precise - we've just used it to make new parts for a 20 grand machine that was to be written off.
None of us are welders by trade but have found tig to be easier to learn than I thought it would be - i've got gas lenses for all our tungsten sizes, good auto helmets, tig fingers and plenty of lighting.
Also we tig braze a lot with sif phosfor bronze.
Given a choice of one welder I'd choose stick though as I can weld thin with it and as some point I'm going to have to repair the handrails to my house and I can't carry a gas cylinder up there.
Never liked mig despite having two good machines - never liked the welds produced by other fellow operators - too many welds lacking penetration.
Cut a lot with gas but never welded with it.
Tig - heaven - perfect for what we do - small delicate repairs/fab - we have a small DC inverter which cost nothing and has no fancy functions but as we don't do pressure/hygene it's all we need to stick stuff together - we all love tig as it's slow and precise - we've just used it to make new parts for a 20 grand machine that was to be written off.
None of us are welders by trade but have found tig to be easier to learn than I thought it would be - i've got gas lenses for all our tungsten sizes, good auto helmets, tig fingers and plenty of lighting.
Also we tig braze a lot with sif phosfor bronze.
Given a choice of one welder I'd choose stick though as I can weld thin with it and as some point I'm going to have to repair the handrails to my house and I can't carry a gas cylinder up there.
I've tried Arc, Mig and Tig, and at present Mig is where I'm most comfortable. I struggled like hell with Arc, but picked up mig fairly quickly. Tig was OK, and I can see having a play with it in a few years, but want to concentrate on Mig for now
I struggled with arc until I learned to bend the rod to make myself comfortable and then use my free hand to guide the rod - there are some gifted folk out there that can guide a rod one-handed at full extension but most of us can't.
Lawnmowerboy
Member
- Messages
- 2,165
I think tig is by a long way my favourite. It's just more fun.
F.J.
Member
- Messages
- 1,845
- Location
- Manchester
I love my job and mig probably 4 days out of 6 in a week. I have a cheap stick/tig set that although I've never used the tig function the stick function is brilliant, really smooth arc and easy to strike up. I used to shy away from stick welding unless is was in the flat position purely because I hadn't had enough practice in other positions. For the last couple of months I've been watching loads of videos on stick welding and have been improving daily making me enjoy it more. I have also just bought a Lincoln ACDC tig and using it the other day brings my total experience with tig welding to a total of...........2.5 hrs!! Never really been fussed about it until this year and the 2.5 hrs spent practicing were quite enjoyable if not more frustrating
brightspark
Member
- Messages
- 40,414
- Location
- yarm stockton on tees
i go to work and get paid the shiny stuffdepens what i'm doing. I love playing with the tig and making shiny stuff. sadly that dosent pay the bills
malcolm
& Clementine the Cat
- Messages
- 9,682
- Location
- Bedford UK
I was going to say I enjoy TIG the most. It's nice. I put my reading glasses on so I can see what I'm doing with it (don't use them for reading) and it's pleasant working on a bench and satisfying if I get it neat. There is a nice noise and a fun puddle to play with.
Wouldn't use TIG anywhere near an elderly Renault though. Too much heat would distort panels so the whole thing would be less fun. MIG for that. I don't use ARC at all as I'm no good at it. I suspect oxy-acetylene would be fun.
Wouldn't use TIG anywhere near an elderly Renault though. Too much heat would distort panels so the whole thing would be less fun. MIG for that. I don't use ARC at all as I'm no good at it. I suspect oxy-acetylene would be fun.
I think that it is a matter of choosing the right process for the job, for myself, MIG, is the method of choice if doing general welding in steel and stainless. Depending on the job and using Aluminium or Stainless, then it could be either TIG or MIG, and if thicker Aluminium (8mm+) or Stainless (4mm+) then the MIG would get the preference (again depending on the job).
MMA (stick) would get the preference on welding outside in a strong breeze if however I could set up a wind break then I would pick the MIG first unless there was a lot of mill scale/crap on the metal which couldn't be cleaned off properly in which case it would be back to MMA, as well as if the job was high up in the air. As for Oxy/Acet welding the last time I used it was about 45 years ago in Tech school for doing brazing, as I haven't had a need for it, but it certainly has it's good points but as I said I don't require it . Although I did use it a lot for cutting steel at one stage but now mainly use the plasma.
One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a few comments in various posts saying that MIG is only suitable for thin steel or is slow, I would totally disagree with that.
MIG can be used for welding any thickness steel from 1mm up to and over 150mm + plate, provided that you match the welder to the job which is true for any welding type. As for being slow, MIG is about 4 times faster than any other process and if it isn't then you are definitely doing something wrong.
Cheers
Ed.
MMA (stick) would get the preference on welding outside in a strong breeze if however I could set up a wind break then I would pick the MIG first unless there was a lot of mill scale/crap on the metal which couldn't be cleaned off properly in which case it would be back to MMA, as well as if the job was high up in the air. As for Oxy/Acet welding the last time I used it was about 45 years ago in Tech school for doing brazing, as I haven't had a need for it, but it certainly has it's good points but as I said I don't require it . Although I did use it a lot for cutting steel at one stage but now mainly use the plasma.
One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a few comments in various posts saying that MIG is only suitable for thin steel or is slow, I would totally disagree with that.
MIG can be used for welding any thickness steel from 1mm up to and over 150mm + plate, provided that you match the welder to the job which is true for any welding type. As for being slow, MIG is about 4 times faster than any other process and if it isn't then you are definitely doing something wrong.
Cheers
Ed.
J.B. Welding
Member
- Messages
- 650
- Location
- Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
You have to love electrical resistance welding (ERW) cos a huge current (up to 100,000A) will slap cannonballs together.
However apart from forge welding, for purists, its gotta be ARC cos there ain't nothing more satisfying. Done well no chipping required.....
However apart from forge welding, for purists, its gotta be ARC cos there ain't nothing more satisfying. Done well no chipping required.....
I would think people saying that only have experience of hobby welders. my big MIG can blow holes in 10mm without fuss. usually welding 3-15mm on 1.0 or 1.2mm but if there is a load of thick stuff to do out comes the 1.6mm wire and there is no hanging about then. problem is about half an hour later you end up remaking the earth lead after the clamp has melted off
Hi Dannyyp, I know what you mean about the capacity of hobby welders, however if enough people say the same thing without qualifying the welder size the new welders on this site will take that as fact that "MIG is only suitable for thin steel", which I have seen quite a few times and so I don't want to perpetuate misinformation.
By the way if your earth clamp is self destructing you should upgrade the cable and the clamp, I use a 6m x 2/0 cable and it barely gets warm up to 350A. I was thinking about fitting a 4/0 cable but since I don't have a need to use the 600 amps, I decided to save some dollars. I rarely ever need to go past 280A and that cable is more than adequate, I also use a modified G clamp with a copper pad on both contacts as the work clamp, works well too! Which MIG welder do you use?
Cheers
Ed.
By the way if your earth clamp is self destructing you should upgrade the cable and the clamp, I use a 6m x 2/0 cable and it barely gets warm up to 350A. I was thinking about fitting a 4/0 cable but since I don't have a need to use the 600 amps, I decided to save some dollars. I rarely ever need to go past 280A and that cable is more than adequate, I also use a modified G clamp with a copper pad on both contacts as the work clamp, works well too! Which MIG welder do you use?
Cheers
Ed.
chevy2
Member
- Messages
- 1,631
- Location
- Herts.
Agreed about mig in a production envoironment being king for speed and making a living,
I spent several years as a welder/fabricator and it was virtually all mig with either 1 or 1.2mm wire doing a range of stuff from 16guage up to around 20mm thick,
Mma was only used out on site,
Oxy/acetylene only for cutting,
Tig for ali and stainless or if the warrantied it.
Tman
Mobile mechanic
- Messages
- 137
- Location
- Durham
It was me saying it is slow am guilty. All I get day in day out is oxy acetylene is out dated and slow compared to mig.granted on long runs of the same material but what I mean was slower than oxy acetylene for restoring and welding cars of different thicknesses I set oa with no 2 jet off I go no messing with wire speed or voltage and with oa I can get almost invisible weld very little clean up. If I use the mig to patch up a sill by the time the mig is setup and the work is cleaned perfectly I could be almost done with oa no clean up just burns away any dirt grime then I would have to grind the mig weld back before painting.
Basically a six inch patch on a sill ready to paint would take some beating oa.
brightspark
Member
- Messages
- 40,414
- Location
- yarm stockton on tees
verry true anyone that hasnt used or got proficient with gas welding doesnt know what they are missing especialy doing classic car welding
Self destructing cables are usually down to a bad connection the cables are ether 35mm2 and 50mm2 size wise the cables are adequate it always on a connection they fail
the cable eating welder is a murex 525. use an interlas 480 at work and that can find a bad connection pretty quick.
OA tried it on a few bits of scrap and quite liked it but never actually used it for anything constructive
Tman
Mobile mechanic
- Messages
- 137
- Location
- Durham
Every process has it's uses and is better suited to different situations and operators ability and training.
Just think that it is sad that a welding process as versatile as oa is classed as out of date and risky and no longer learnt. Due to a few idiots blowing them selfs up. If they spent more time on training in stead of scare mongering it would be more widely used, And more appreciated.
Just think that it is sad that a welding process as versatile as oa is classed as out of date and risky and no longer learnt. Due to a few idiots blowing them selfs up. If they spent more time on training in stead of scare mongering it would be more widely used, And more appreciated.
